Esther 1 & 2

Est 1
The story of Esther begins with the story of King Ahasuerus. King Ahasuerus was a man of great wealth, and rightly so judging from the size of his kingdom. Alexander the Great's kingdom was the same size (though Alexander died in his final conquests) and he is supposedly the most famous person next to Jesus the world over. King Ahasuerus through a large festival type of party and on the third day, when he was 'merry with wine' asked for his prized bride to present herself before all of the princes gathered to show her beauty. In one of the earliest acts of feminism (but not the earliest mine you), Queen Vashti his wife would not present herself before the king and princes.

Due to this single act of disobedience, the king's eunuchs convinced the king to sign an edict, removing Queen Vashti from her royal place, saying that if all the women in this province started mimicking Queen Vashti's actions, the princes of the provinces would be put out. The king signed the edict.

Est 2
The first verse of this chapter says that 'the king's anger subsided and he remembered Vashti.' I think this means he longed for her, wanted her back perhaps because the next thing written is about the eunuchs searching for a wife for the King (I think to fill the void that the king felt).

The story of Esther enters into the second paragraph of this chapter. We learn that Mordecai is raising her because of the absence of her mother and father and that she is beautiful.

Esther is summoned with all the women of the province to a harem where they will undergo a year of cosmetics and beautification and then will see the king in the early hours of the day to find out if they will become his concubine or the Queen (v14).

After all of this took place, Esther was chosen as Queen, and with Mordecai's help, one of her first acts as queen was to stop a plot to kill the king. The king chronicled this act by Esther and Mordecai.

Practical advice thus far: Love your wives. They will be disobedient but remember, you also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending your life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7).